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THEE OPINIOlSrS /; 6 6 

OF - ^^ 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

UPON 

SLAYERT AND ITS ISSUES: 

INDICATED BY 
HIS SPEECHES, LETTERS, MESSAGES, AND PROCLAMATIONS. 



The antagonism bet"ween Slavery and 
Freedom, natural. Tke policy of the 
Slaveocracy foreshado'wed. 

From Speech at Springfield, 111., June 11, 1858. 

We are now far into the fifth year since a 
policy was initiated with the avowed object, 
and confident promise, of putting an end to 
alavery agitation. Under the operation of that 
policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, 
but has constantly augmented. In my opin- 
ion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have 
been reached and passed. "A house divided 
against itself cannot stand." I believe this 
government cannot endure permanently half 
slave and half free. I do not expect the Union 
to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to 
fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divi- 
ded. It will become all one thing or all the 
Other. Either the opponents of slavery will 
arrest the further spread of it, and place it 
where the public mind shall rest in the belief 
that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, 
or its advocates will push it forward till it 
ghall become alike lawful in all the States, old 
as well as new, North as well as South. 

Have we no tendency to the latter condi- 
tion ? Let any one who doubts, carefully con- 
template that now almost complete legal com- 
bination — a piece of machinery, so to speak — 
compounded of the Nebraska doctrine and the 
Dred Scott decision. Let him consider not 
©nly what work the machinery is adapted to 
do, and how well adapted; but also let him 
study the history of its construction, and trace, 
if he can, or rather fail if he can, to trace the 



evidences of design, and concert of action 
among its chief architects, from the beginning 

The People warned of their danger, and 
summoned to duty. 

From the same. 
Such a decision is all thatslavery now lacks 
of being alike lawful in all the States, Wel- 
come or unwelcome, such decision is proba- 
bly coming, and will soon be upon us, unless 
the power of the present political dynasty shall 
be met and overthrown. We shall lie down 
pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri 
are on the verge of making their State free, 
and we shall awake to the reality , instead, that 
the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave 
State. To meet and overthrow the power of 
that dynasty, is the work now before all those 
who would prevent that consummation. That 
is what we have to do. How can we best do it? 

Free hands and earnest hearts only to 
be trusted. 

From the same. 
Our cause must be intrusted to, and con- 
ducted by its own undoubted friends, those 
whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the 
work, who do care for the result. 

The Popular belief, that Slavery was In 
the course of ultimate extinction, gave 
the Country peace. Hatred of Sla- 
very. 

From Speech at Chicago, July 10, 1858. 
I am tolerably well acquainted with the 



^^n^'^^y 



history of the country, and I know that it has 
eiKJured eighty-two years, hnlf shivc and half 
free. I be.ieve it hud endured, because during 
all that time, until the introduction of the 
Nebraska bill, the public mind did rest all 
lime in the belief that slavery was in the 
course of ultimate extinction. That was what 
g.ive us the rest tluit wc had through that pe- 
liod of eighty-two jears; at least so I believe. 

I HAVE ALWAYS HATKD SLAVKUY, I THINK, A3 
MLCn AS ANY ABOLITIONIST. 

SJavcry a Vast ITIoral Evil. 

From the same. 

The American people look upon slavery as 
a vast m oral evil ; they can prove it such by 
the writings of those who gave us the bless- 
ings of liberty which we enjoy; and that the_v 
so looked upon ii, and not as an evil merely 
confining itself to the States where it is situ- 
ated. 

The Infallibility of th9 Dred Scott De- 
cision Questioned. 

From the same. 

I have never heard of such a thing [the sa- 
credness of tho Dred Scott decision.] Why, 
decisions apparently contrary to that decision 
have been made by that very court before. It 
is the first of its kind ; it is an astonisher in 
legal history. It is a new wonder of tho 
worM. It is based upon falsehood in the main 
as to the facts. Allegations of facts, upon 
which it stands, are not facts at all, in many 
instances. And no decision made on any ques- 
tion — the first instance of a decision made 
vinder so many unfavorable circumstances — 
thus placed, has ever been held by the protes- 
sion as law, and it has always needed con- 
lirmation before the lawyers regarded it as i 
r-cttlfd law. j 

The Manner in -which the White and I 
Black Rac33 can do each other most i 
good. 

From the same. 

I p-otP5t. now and forever, against that 
counterfeit logic which presumes that because 
1 did not want a negro woman for a slave, I 
do necessarily want her for a wife. My under- 
standing is that I need not have her for either, 
l)iit, as God made us separate, wo can leave 
one another alone, and do one another much 
f^ood thereby. There are white men enough j 
to m.irry all the wliite women, and enough 
black men to marry all the black women; and, 
in God's name, let them be so married. 

The Declaration of Independence our j 
Bond of Union with all mankind. \ 

From the same. 

In every way we are better men in tho age, 
and race, and country in which we lire, for 
these Fourth of July celebrations. But after 



we have done all this, we have not yet reached 
the whole. There is something else connected 
with it. We hare, besides these, men — de- 
scended by blood from our ancestors — among 
us, perhaps half our people, who are not 
descendants at all of these men ; they are men 
who have come from Europe — German, Irish, 
French, and Scandinavian — men that hare 
come from Europe themselves, or whose an- 
cestors have come hither and settled here, 
finding themselves our equals in all things. 
If they look back through this hi.-^tory, to trace 
their connection with those days by blood, 
they find they have none; they cannot carry 
themselves back into that glorious epoch and 
make themselves feel that they are part of us, 
but when they look through that old Declara- 
tion of Independence, they find that tliose old 
men say that " We hold these truths to be self 
evident, that all men are created equal ;" and 
then they feel that that moral sentiment, 
tiiught in that day, evidences their relation to 
those men ; that it is the father of all moral 
principle in them, and that they have a right 
to claim it as though they were blood of the 
blood, and flesh of the flesh, of the men who 
wrote that Declaration — and so they are. That 
is the electric cord in that Declaration that 
links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving 
men together, and will link those patriotic 
hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in 
the minds of men throughout the world. 

The assumption that Slavery is right 
does not stop ■V7ith one race. 

From the same. 

Turn in whatever way you will — whether 
it come from the mouth of a king, an excuse 
for enslaving the people of his country, or 
from the mouth of men of one race as a reason 
for enslaving the men of another race — it is 
all the same old serpent; and I hold if that 
course of argumentation that is made for the 
purpose of convincing the public mind that 
we should not care about this, should be be 
granted, it does not stop with the negro. I 
should like to know if, taking this old Declar- 
ation of Independence, which declares that all 
men are equal upon principle, and making ex- 
ception to it, when will it stoi>? If one man 
says it does not mean a negro, why not another 
say it does not mean some other man ? If that 
declaration is not the trath, let us get the stat- 
ute book, in which we find it, and tear it out? 
Who is 80 bold as to do it ? 



All quibbling as to the equality of man- 
kind must be discarded. 

From the same. 

Let us discard all this quibbling about this 
man and the other man — this race and that 
race, and the other race being inferior, and 






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therefore, they must be placed in nn inferior 

po?ition — discarding our standard that we have 

... left us. let us discard all these thinj^s, and unite 

"^ as one people throughout this land, until we 

o shall once more stand up declaring that all 

men are created equal. 

The rights of the Negro. An appeal to 
the universal sense of justice. 

From Speech at Springfield, July lY, 1858. 

Ceitainly the negro is notour equal in color 
— perhaps not in many other respects ; still in 
the right to put into his mouth the bread that 
his own hands have earned, he is the equal of 
every other man, white or black. In pointing 
out that more has been given you, you cannot 
be justified in taking away the little which has 
been given him. 

The Slaveholders responsible for all 
agitation. 

From Speech atJoneihoro, 111., Sept. 15, 1858. 

All the trouble and convulsion has proceed- 
ed from efforts to spread slavery over more 
territory. It was thus at the date of the Mis- 
souri Compromise. It was so again with 
the annexation of Texas ; so with the ter- 
ritory acquired by the Mexican war, and it is so 
now. Whenever there has been an effort to 
spread it, there has been agitation and resist- 
ance. Now, I appeal to this audience, (very 
few of whom are my political friends,) as na- 
tional men, whether we have reason to expect 
that the agitation, in regard to this subject, 
will cease while the causes that tend to repro- 
duce agitation are actually at work? Will 
not the same cause that produced agitation in 
1820,when the Missouri Compromise was form- 
ed — that which produced the agitation upon 
the annexation of Texas and at other times 
— work out the same results always? Do you 
think that the nature of man will be changed 
— that the same causes that produced agita- 
tion at one time will not have the same effect 
at another? 

As a political rule, the Dred Scott De- 
cision not binding. Should be re- 
versed. 

From Speech.et Quincy, III., Oct. 13. 1858. 
Wedo not propose that when Dred Scott 
has been decided to be a slave by the court, 
we, as a mob, will decide him to be free. We 
do not propose that, when any other one, or 
one thousand, shall be decided by that court 
to be slaves, we will, in any violent way, 
disturb the rights of property thus settled ; 
but we nevertheless do oppose that decision as 
a political rule, which shall be binding on the 
voter to vote for nobody who thinks it wrong, 
■which shall be binding on the members of Con- 
gress or the President to favor no measure 



that does not actually concur with the princi- 
ples of that decision. We do not propose to be 
bound by it as a political rule in that way, be- 
cause we think it lays the foundation, not 
merely of enlarging and spreading out what 
wc consider nn evil, but it lays the foundation 
of spreading that evil into the States them- 
selves. We propose so resisting it as to have it 
reversed if we can, and a new judicial rule es- 
tablished upon the subject. 

Discards all affiliation with those who 
believe Slavery not wrong. 

Irom the same. 

I will say now, that there is a sentiment in 
the country contrary to me— a sentiment which 
holds that slavery is not wrong, and therefore, 
it goes for the policy that does not propose 
dealing with it as a wrong. That policy is the 
Democratic policy, and that sentiment is the 
Democratic sentiment. 

The way to end Slavery agitation. 

From the same. 

I have been stating where we and they stand, 
and trying to show what is the real difference 
between us; and I now say, that whenever we 
can get the question distinctly stated, can get 
all these men who believe that slavery is in 
some of these respects wrong, to stand and 
act with us in treating it as a wrong — then, 
and not till then, I think we will in some way 
come to an end of this slavery agitation. 

The origin of the assault upon the De- 
claration of Independence. 

From Speech at Alton, Oct. 15, 1858. 

I know that Mr. Calhoun and all the polit;- 
tions of his school, denied the truth of the 
Declaration. I know that it ran along in the 
mouth of some southern men for a period of 
years, ending, at last, in that shameful, though 
rather forcible declaration of Pettit of Indiana, 
upon the floor of the United States Senate, 
that the Declaration of Independence was in 
that respect " a self-evident lie," rather than 
a self-evident truth. But I say, with a perfect 
knowledge of all this hawking at the Declar- 
ation, without directly attacking it, that three 
years ago there never had lived a man who 
had ventured to assail it in the sneaking way of 
pretending to believe it, and then asserting that 
it did not include the negro. I believe the first 
man who ever said it, was Chief Justice Tan- 
ey, in the Dred Scott case. 

Slavery Ignored by the text of the Con- 
stitution. 

From the same. 

In all three of these places, being the onlj 



allusions to slavery in the instrument, covert 
language is used. Language is used not sug- 
gesting that slavery existed, or that the black 
race were among us. And I understand the 
contemporaneous history of those times to be 
that covert language was used with a purpose, 
and that purpose was that in our Constitution, 
which it was hoped, and is still hoped, Avill 
endure forever — when it should be read by in- 
telligent and patriotic men, after the institu- 
tion of slavery had passed fruiu among us — 
there should be nothing on the face of the 
great charter of liberty suggesting that such a 
thing as negro slavery had ever existed among 
us. This is part of the evidence that the 
fathers of the Government expected and in- 
tended the institution of slavery to come to 
an end. They expected and intended that it 
should be in the course of ultimate extinction. 
And when I say that I desire to see the fi«.ther 
spread of it arrested, I only say I desire to see 
that done which the fathers have first done. 

The Consequences of establishing the 
Principle that there is no wrong in | 
Slavery. 

From Speech at Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 1859. 

Then, I say, if this principle is established, 
that there is no wrong in slavery, and who- 
ever wants it has a right to have it, is a mat- 
ter of dollars and cents — a sort of question as 
to how they shall deal with brutes ; that be- 
tween us and the negro here there is no sort 
of question, but that at the South the ques- 
tion is between the negro and the crocodile. 
That is all. It is a mere matter of policy; 
there is a perfect right, according to interest, 
to do just as you please ; when this is done, 
when this doctrine prevails, the miners and 
sappers will have formed public opinion for 
the slave trade. They will be ready for Jeff. 
Davis, and Stephens, and other leaders of that 
company, to sound the bugle for the revival of 
the slave trade, for the second Dred Scott de- 
cision, for the flood of slavery to be poured 
over the free States, while we shall be here tied 
down and helpless, and run over like sheep. 

Room enough for All to be !Free. 

From Speech at Cincinnati, Sept., 1859. 
I say there is room enough for us all to be 
free, and it not only does not wrong the white 
man that the negro should be free, but it posi- 
tively wrongs the mass of white men that the 
negro should be enslaved ; that the mass of 
white men are really injured by the effects 
of slave labor in the vicinity of the fields of 
their own labor. 



The Government char f^ed ivith the Duty 
of redressing all fVrongs lohich art 
IVroTifjs to itself. 

From the same. 
We want and must have a national policy, 



in regard to the institution of slavery, that ac- 
knowledges and deals with that institution ag 
being wrong. Whoever desires the preven- 
tion of the spread of slavery, and the nation- 
alization of that institution, yields all, when 
he yields to any policy that either recognises 
slavery as being right, or as being an indifferent 
thing. Nothing will make you successful, but 
setting up a policy which shall treat the thing 
as being wrong. When I say this, I do not 
mean to say that this General Government is 
charged with the duty of redressing or pre- 
venting all the wrongs in the world ; but I do 
think it is charged with preventingand redress- 
ing all wrongs which are wrongs to itself. This 
Government is expressly charged with the duty 

of providing for the general v/elfare. We be- 
lieve that the spreading out and perpetuity of 
the institution of slavery, impairs the general 

welfare. 

We believe, nay, we know, that that is the 
only thing that has threatened the perpetuity of 
the Union itself. The only thing which has ever 
menaced the destruction of the Government 
under which we live, is this very thing. To 
repress this thing, we think, is providing for 
the general welfare. 

WHAT THE PEOPLE BY THEIR VOTES 
MUST PREVENT. 

From the same. 

We must prevent the outspreading of the 
institution, because neither the ConstitiUion 
nor the general welfare requires us to extend 
it. We must prevent the revival of the Afri- 
can slave trade, and the enacting, by Congress, 
of a territorial slave code. We must prevent 
each of these things being done by either Con- 
gresses or courts. Tlie people of these United 
States are the rightful masters of both Con- 
gresses and courts not to overthrow the Consti- 
tution, but to overthrow the men who pervert 
the Constitution. 

HE THAT GATHERETH NOT WITH US, 
SCATTERETH. 

From the same. 

The good old maxims of the Bible are appli- 
cable, and truly applicable, to human affairs ; 
and in this, as in other things, we may say 
here, that he who is not for us is against us; 
he who gathereth not with us, scattereth. 

THE EXTENT OF THE JUDGMENT AND 
FEKLING AGAINST SLAVERY IN THE 
NATION. 



From Speech at Cooper Institute, Feb. 27, 1860. 

Human action can be modified to some ex- 
tent, but human nature cannot be changed. 
There is a judgment and a feeling against 
slavery in this nation, which cast, at least, a 



/'/(^ 



million and a half of votes You cannot de- 
stroy that judgment and feelinnr, that sentiment, 
bj breaking up the politieal organiz.aiiun', 
which rallies around it. You can scarcely 
scatternnd disperse an army which has been 
form.ed into order in the face of your heavi- 
est fire ; but if you could, how much would 
you gain by forcing the sentiment which cre- 
ated it, out of the peaceful channel of the bal- 
lot-box into some other channel. What would 
that other channel probably be ? Would the 
number of John Browns be lessened, or enlar- 
ged by the operation ? 

The Constitution of the United States 
vindicated. Its framers did not in- 
tend it to be a Pro-Slavery instru- 
ment. The stand and deliver Argu- 
ment. 

From the same. 

When this obvious mistake of the Judges 
[that the right of property in the slave is 
distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Con- 
stitution] shall be brought to their notice, is it 
not reasonable to expect that they will with- 
draw the mistaken statement, and reconsider 
the conclusion based upon it? 

And then it is to be remembered that our 
fathers, who framed tho Government under 
■which w^e live-, the men who made the Consti- 
tution, decided this same constitutional ques- 
tion in our fiivor long ago, decided it without 
a division amo!ig themselves when making 
the decision ; without division among them- 
selves about the meaning of it after it was 
made, and, so far as any evidence is left, with- 
out basing it upon any mistaken stntnmciit of 
facts. 

But 3'ou will not abide the election of a 
Republican President. In that supposed event, 
you say, you will destroy the Union ; and then 
you say the great crime of having destroyed it 
will be upon us? 

That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol 
to ray ear, and mutters through his teeth — 
•' Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you ; and 
then you will be a murderer !" 

To be sure, what the robber demanded of 
me, my mone}-, was my own ; and I had a clear 
right to keep it ; but it is no more my own 
than my vote is my own ; and the threat of 
death to me to extort ray money, and the 
threat of destruction to the Union, to extort 
my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in 
principle. 

The slaveholders implacahlc. Their de- 
mands unreasonable. Wc cannot yield 
without surrendering our self-respect. 

From the same. 

The question recurs — What will satisfy 
them? Simply this: we must not only let 
them alone, but we must Bomebow convince 



them that we do let them alone. This, we 
know by experience, is no easy task. We 
have been so trying to convince them, from 
the very beginning of our orgatii/ation, but 
with no success. In all our platforms and 
speeches we have constantly protested our 
purpose to let them alone; but this has had 
no tendency to convince them. Alike una- 
vailing to convince them is the fact that they 
have never detected a man of us in any at- 
tempt to disturb them. 

These natural, and apparently adequate 
means, all failing, what will convince them? 
This, and this only : cease to call slavery 
u-ronr/, and join them in calling it right. And 
this must be done thoroughly — done in acts, 
as well as words. Silence will not be tolera- 
ted — we must place ourselves avowedly with 
hem. 

Nor can we justifiably withhold this on any 
ground save our conviction that slaver}- is 
wrong. If slavery is right, all words, acts, 
laws, and constitutions against it are them- 
selves wrong, and should be silenced, and 
swept away. If it is ri-ht, we cannot justly 
object to its nationality — its universality ; if it 
is wrong, they cannot justly insist upon its 
extension, its enlargement. All they ask, we 
could readily grant, if we thought slavery 
right; all we ask, they could readily grant, if 
they thought it wrong. Their thinking it 
right, and our thinking it wrong, is the precise 
fact upon which depends the whole contro- 
versy. Thinking it right, as they do, they 
are not to blame for desiring its full recogni- 
tion, as being right ; but thinking it wrong, a^ 
we do, can wc yield to them ? Can we cast 
our votes with their view, and against our 
own? In view of our moral, social, and po- 
litical responsibilities, can we do this? 

Let US abide by our Faith, and do our 
Duty. 

From (he same. 

Neither let us be slandered from our duty 
by false accusations against us, nor frightened 
from it by menaces of destruction to the CJov- 
ernment, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let 
us have faith that right makes might, and in 
that faith, let us to the end dare to do our 
duty, as we understand it. 

The [Han berore the Dollnr 

From letter to Boston Jefferson Anniversary Com. 
April 6, 1859. 

The Democracy of to-day hold the liberty 
of one man to be absolutely nothing, when in 
conflict with another man's right of property. 
Kepublicans, on the contrary, are both for the 
man and the dollar^ but in the case of conflict, 
the man before the dollar. 



BE NO SLAVE AND HAVE NO SLAVE. 

From the same. 

This is a world of compensations ; and he 
who would be no slave must consent to have 
no slave. Those who deny freedom to others 
deserve it not for themselves, and, under a 
just God, (.'unnot long retain it. 

THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF MAN RE- 
AFFIRMED. 

From letter to Dr. Canisius, and other German 
citizens, May 17, 1859. 

It is well known that I deplore the op- 
pressed condition of the blucks ; and it would, 
therefore, be very inconsistent for me to look 
with approval upon any measures that infringe 
upon the inalienable rights of white men, 
whether or not they are born in another land. 
or speak a dllVerent language from my own. 

CONSCIOUS OF HIS IMMENSE RESPONST- 
DILITY. A CALM AND TRUSTFUL RE- 
LIANCE UPON DIVINE PROVIDENCE- 
ASKS PRAYE:1S FOR THAT DIVINE AS- 
SISTANCE ON WHICH WAi^HINGTON 
r.EPOSED, AND ^YH1CU WILL GIVE HIM 
SUCCESS. 

From Speech on leaving Springfield, Feb. 1, ISGl. 

A duty devolves upon me which is, perhaps, 
greater than that which has devolved upon 
any other man since the days of Washington. 
He never could have succeeded except for the 
aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at 
all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed 
without the same Divine aid which sustained 
h.m ; and in the same almighty being I place 
my reliance for support, and I hope you, my 
friends, will all pray that 1 may receive that 
Divine assistance, without which I cannot suc- 
ceed, but with which success is certain. 

THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAWS IN 
.ALL THE STATES A SIMPLE DUTY, 
WHICH, WITH THE HELPOFTHE AMER- 
iL'AN PEOPLE, ^HALL BE FAITHFULLY 
PERFORMED. 

From the Inaugural Address. 

I consider that, in view of the Constitution 
nnd the laws, the Union is unbroken, and, to 
the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as 
the Constitution itself e.xpressly enjoins me, 
t!:at the laws of the Union shall be faithfully 
executed in all the States. Doing this, which 
I deem to bo only !\ simple duty on my part, I 
sh.ill perfectly perform it, so f.ir as is practi- 
cal, unless my rightful masters, the American 
people, shall withhold the requisition, or, in 
some authoritative manner, direct the con- 
trary. 



Rebels the authors of their own calam- 
ities. No constitutional rights in- 
fringed upon. Frirndli/ words oj 
advice. No cause for disaffection. 

From the same. 

That there are persons, in one section or 
another, who seek to destroy the Union at all 
events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I 
will neither affirm nor deny. But, if there be 
such, I need address no word to them. 

To those, however, who really love the 
Union, may I not speak, before entering upon 
so grave a matter as the destruction of our 
national fabric, with all its benefits, its mem- 
ories and its hopes? Would it not be well 
to ascertain why we do it? Will you hazard 
so desperate a step, while any portion of the 
ills you lly from have no real existence? Will 
you, while the certain ills you fly to are 
greater than all the real ones you Hy from? 
Will you risk the commission of so fearful a 
mistake? All profess to be content in the 
Union, if all constitutional rights can be main- 
tained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly 
written in the Constitution, has been denied? 
I think not. Happily, the human mind is so 
constituted that no party can reach to the au- 
dacity of doing this. 

The majoriti/ of the people the o)ilij 

legitimate socereign of this nation. 

From the same. 

A majority held in restraint by constitu- 
tional check and limitation, and always chang- 
ing easily with deliberate changes of popular 
opinions and sentiments, is the only true sov- 
ereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it, 
does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despot- 
ism. 

The Supreme Court not the masters of 
the people. 

From the same. 
The candid citizen must confess that if the 
policy of the government upon the vital ques- 
tions affecting the whole people is to be irre- 
vocably fixed" by the Decisions of the Supreme 
Court, the instant they are made, as in ordi- 
nary litigation between parties in personal 
actions, the people will have ceased to be 
their own masters, unless having to that ex- 
tent practically resigned their government 
into the hands of that eminent tribunal. 

The Government ivill make no assaults. 
The aggressors to be held accounta- 
ble. All oath registered in Heaven 
to protect the Governrnent. A touch- 
ing appeal to patriotism. 

From the same. 
la your hands, my dissatisfied fellow- 



/yy 



countrymen, and not in mine, is ihe momen- 
tou* issue of civil war. Tlie Government will 
not assail you. 

You CAN HAVE NO CONFLICT WITHOUT HEING 
YOUUSKLVES TUB AGORKSSOUS. Vou llUVe IIO 

oath registered in Heaven to destroy the (Jov- 
ernment ; while 1 shall hare the most solemn 
one to " preserve, protect and defend " it. 

lam loath to close. We are not enemies, 
but friends. We must not be enemies. Though 
passion may have strained, it must not break 
our bonds of affection. 

The mystic cords of memory, stretching from 
every battle-field and patriot's grave to every 
living heart and hearth stone all over ihisbroad ; 
lan<l, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, 
when again touched, as surely they will be, 
by the better angels of our nature. 

The questio x of the ability of a Con- 
stitutional Republic to protect itself 
against the attacks of a discontented 
minority, noiv to be settled. The ne- 
cessity of exercising the War Power. 

From Mesfage of July 4, 1861. 

In this act [the attack on Fort Sumter] discard- 
ing all else, they have forced upon the country 
the distinct issue, immediate dissolution or 
blood, and this issue embraces more than the 
fate of these United States. It presents to the 
whole family of man the question, whether a 
constitutional Republic or Democracy, a gov- 
ernment of the people, by the same people, can 
or cannot maintain its territorial integrity 
against its own domestic foes. It presents the 
question whether discontented individuals, too 
few in numbers to control the Administration 
according to the organic law in any case, can 
always, upon the pretences made in this case, 
or any other pretences, or arbitrarily without 
any pretence, break up their government, and 
thus practically put an end to free government 
upon the earth. It forces us to ask " Is there in 
all Republics this inherent and fatal weak- 
ness?" Must a government of necessity be too 
strong for the liberties of its own people, or too 
weak to maintain its own existence? So 
viewing the issues no choice was left but to 
call out the war power of the Government, and 
80 to resist the force employed for its destruc- 
tion, by force for its preservation. The call 
was made, and the reponse of the country was 
most gratifying, surpassing in unanimity and 
spirit, the most sanguine expectation. 

The Benefits of otir Free Institutions. 
The intellectual caliber of our Volun- 
teer Soldiers. 

From the aame. 

It may be affirmed, withoat extraviganre, 
that the free institutions we enjoy hare derel- 



oped the powers and improved the condition 
of our whole j)eople beyond any examjile ia 
the world. Of this we now have a striking 
and imi)re8sivo illustratiun. So large an army 
as the (iovcrnmeiil has now ou fool was never 
before known, without a f^oldicr in it Ijut who 
has taken his place there of his (;wn free choiie. 
Hut more than this, there are many single regi- 
ments, whose memljors, one and auoiher, pos- 
sess full practical kncnvlcdge of all the arts, 
sciences, ])rofessions,and whatever else, wheth- 
er useful or elegant, is known in the whole 
world, and IhTe ia scared / one from which (here 
could not be selected a President, a C'ahinct, a Con- 
gress, and perhaps a Court, uhundanily competent 
to administer the Government itself. 

The Rebel Declaration of Independence 
a burlesque; their Constitution a 
sham. The rights of man and the 
authority of the people pressed out of 
view. This is n struggle to elevate 
the conditioji of humanity. 

From the same. 

Our adversaries have adopted some declara- 
tions of independence in which, unlike the 
good old one penned by Jefferson, they omit 
the words, "all men are created equal." Why? 
They have adopted a Temporary National 
Constitution, in the preamble of which, \inlike 
our good old one signed by Washington, they 
omit '-We, the people," and substiiute "We 
the Deputies of the Sovereign and Indei)en(lcnt 
States." Why? Why this deliberate pressing 
out of view the rights of men and the author- 
ity of the people? This is essentially a people's 
contest. On the side of ihe Union it is a struggle 
for maintaining in the world that form and sub- 
stance of government, whose leading object is to ele- 
vate (he condition of men, to lift artificial weights 
from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable 
pursuit for all, to afford all an unfettered start, 
and a fair chance in the race of life, yielding to 
partial and temporary departures from necessity. 
This is the leading object of the Government, for 
whose existence we contend. 

This is the People'' s Government, and 
they will maintain by the Bullet t/ie 
decision by Ballot. Pampered Offi- 
cers have provid jalsc, but not one 
common soldier or sailor has deserted 
his Flag. A Lrsson to be taught the 
beginners oj the JFar. 
From the same. 

It is worthy of note, that while in this, the 
Government's hour of trial, large numbers of 
those in the army and navy, who have been 
favored with the offices, hare resigned and 
proved false to the hand which pampered 



8 



hem, not one common soldier nor common 
ailor is known to have deserted liis flfig. 
Jreat honoris due to those officers who remain- 
d true, despite the example of their treach- 
rous associates ; but the greatest honor and 
he most important fact of all, is the unani- 
nous firmness of the common soldiers and 
ailors. To the last man. so far as known, 
hev have successfuUj resisted the traitorous 
'ffo'rts of those whose commands lyut an hour 
>efore they obeyed as absolute law. This is the 
)atriotic i'nstinct of plain people. They under- 
hand, without an argument, that the destroy- 
ng the Government which was made by Wash- 
ngton, means no good to them. Our popular 
Government has often been called an experi- 
iient. Two points in it our people have set- 
tled; the successful establishing and the suc- 
L-espful administering of it. One still remains, 
its successful maintenance against a formida- 
ble internal attempt to overthrow it. It is now 
for them to demonstrate to the world, that 
those who can fairly carry an election, can 
also suppress a rebellion ; that ballots are the 
rightful and peaceful successorsof bullets. And 
that when ballots have fairly and contitution- 
ally decided, there can be no successful appeal 
back to bullets ; that there can be no success- 
ful appeal except to ballots themselves, at suc- 
ceeding elections. Such will be a great lesson 
of peace ; teaching men that what they cannoj 
take by an election, neither can they take by a 
-ivar — teaching all the folly of being the begin- 
ners of a war. 

The War Power employed with regret. 
Compromise could not cure, and would 
be a dangerous precedent. 



From the same. 

It was with the deepest regret that the Ex- 
ecutive found the duty of employing the war 
power. In defence of the Government forced 
upon him, he could but perform this duty, or 
surrender the existence of the Government. 
No compromise by public servants could in this 
case be a cure, not that compromises are not 
often proper, but that no popular Government 
can long survive a marked precedent, that those 
who carry an election, can only save the Govern' 
ment from immediate destruction, by giving up 
the main point upon which the people gave the ele- 
ction. The people themselves, and not their servants, 
can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions. 

Th" President, unswayed by position 
and power, does not forget that he is 
a man and an American citizen. 



much less could he, in betrayal of so vast and so 
sacred a trust as this free people had confided to 
him. lie felt that he had no moral right to 
shrink, nor even to count the chances of his own 
life in ichat might follow. 

Men in authority rising with the occa- 
siorij must think and act anew. If 
they are self-sacrificing and earn- 
est in their patriotism, history will 
do them justice. In giving freedom 
to the slave, we assure freedom to 
the free. 

From Message of December 1, 1862. 

The dogmas of the quiet past are inade- 
quate to the stormy preheat. The occasion is 
piled high with difficulty, and we must rise 
with the occasion. As our case is new, so we 
must think anew, and act anew. We must 
disenthrall ourselres, and then we shall save 
our country. 

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. 
We, of this Congress, and this administration, 
will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No 
personal significance, or insignificance, can 
spare one or another of us. The fiery trial 
through which wo pass, will light us down, in 
honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. 
We sag we are for the Union. The world will 
not forget that we say this. We know how to 
save the Union. The world knows we do know 
how to save it. We — eren we here — hold the 
power, and bear the responsibility. In giving 
freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the 
free — honorable alike in what we give, and 
what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or 
meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth. 
Other means may succeed ; this could not fail. 
The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a 
way which, if followed, the world will forever 
applaud, and God must forever bless. 

AN APPEAL TO THE PATRIOTISM OF 
THE PEOPLE. 

From Proclamation of April 15, 1861. 

I appeal to all loyal eitlKcns to favor, facil- 
itate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, 
the integrity, and the existence of our Na- 
tional Union, and the perpetuity of popular 
government ; and to redress wrongs already 
long enough endured. 

COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION RE- 
COMMENDED. 



From the same. 
As a private citizen, the Executive could not 
have consented that these institutions shall perish, 



From Proclamation of Mag 10, 1362. 

On the sixth day of March last, by a special 
mesdage, I recommended to Congress the 
adoption of a joint resolution, to be substan- 
tially as follows: 



//^ 



Resolved, That the Uoited States ought to 
co-operate with any State which may adopt a 
gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such 
State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State 
in its discretion, to compensate for the incon- 
veniences, public and private, produced by 
such change of system. 

The resolution, in the language above quo- 
ted, was adopted by large majorities in both 
branches of Congress, and now stands an au- 
thentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the 
nation to the States and people most imme- 
diately interested in the subject matter. To 
the people of those States I now earnestly ap- 
peal. 1 do not argue — I beseech you to make 
the argument for yourselves. You cannot, if 
you would, be blind to the signs of the times. 
I beg of you a calm and enlarged considera- 
tion of tliem, ranging, if it may be, far above 
personal and partisan politics. This proposal 
makes common cause for a common object, 
casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not the 
Pharisee. The change it contemplates would 
come gently as the dews of heaven, not rend- 
ing or wrecking anything. Will you not em- 
brace it? So much good has not been done, 
by one effort, in all past time, as in the Provi- 
dence of God, it is now your high privilege to 
do. May the vast future not have to lament 
that you have neglected it. 



Our national sins acknowledged, and 
prayer for clemency and Jorgiveness 
recommended* 



From Proclamation of March 30/A, 1863, appoint- 
ing a day of fasting and prayer. 

May we not justly fear that the awful calam- 
ity of civil war which now desolates the land 
may be but a punishment inflicted upon us 
lor our presumptuous sins, to the needful end 
of our national reformation as a whole peo- 
ple? We have been the recipients of the 
choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been 
preserved ihese many years in peace and pros- 
perity. We have grown in numbers, wealth 
and power as no other nation has ever grown. 
But we have forgotten God. We have forgot- 
ten the gracious hand which preserved us in 
peace, and multiplied, enriched, and strength- 
ened us ; and we have daily imagined, in the 
deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these bless- 
ings were produced by some superior wisdom 
and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with un- 
broken success, we have become too self- 
gufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming 
and preserving grace, too proud to pray to 
the God that made us. 

It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves 
before the offended Power, to confess our 
national sins, and to pray for clemency and 
forgiveness. 



The coming of the Emancipation Proc- 
lamation announced. 

From Proclamation of Sept. 26th, 18G2. 

It is my purpose, upon the next meeting of 
Congress, to again recommend the adopliou 
of a practical measure tendering pecuniary 
aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all 
slave States, so called, the people whereof 
may not then be in rebellion against the 
United States, and which States may then 
have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may 
voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abol- 
ishment of slavery within their respective 
limits; and that the effort to colonize personi 
of African descent, with their consent, upon 
this continent or elsewhere, with the previously 
obtained consent of the governments existing 
there, will be continued. 

That on the first day of January, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within 
any State or designated part of a State, the 
people whereof shall then be in rebellion 
against the United States, shall be then, 
thenceforward, and forever free ; and the 
Executive Government of the United States, 
including the military and naval authority 
thereof, will recognize and maintain the free- 
dom of such persons, and will do no act nor 
acts to repress such persons, or any of them, 
in any efforts they may make for their actual 
freedom. 

The protection of the Army and Navy 
tendered to the escaped bondmen of 



rebels. 



capcd 
(From the tame.) 



0/ 



Attention is hereby called to an net of 
Congress entitled "An act to make an addi- 
tional article of war," approved March 13, 
1862, and which act is in the words and figures 
following : 

^^ Be it enacted by the Senate and House of 
Representativci of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled. That hereafter the fol- 
lowing shall be promulgated as an additional 
article of war, for the government of the army 
of the United States, and shall be obeyed and 
observed as such : 

"AuTicr.H. — All officers or persons in the 
military or naval service of the United States, 
are prohibited from employing any of the for- 
ces under their respective commands for the 
purpose of returning fugitives from service or 
labor who may have escaped from any persons 
to whom such service or labor is claimed to 
be due ; and any officer who shall be found 
guilty by a court-martial of violating this 
article shall be dismissed from the service. 

"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That this 
act shall take effect from and after its pas- 
sage." 



10 



Also to the ninth nnd tenth sections of an 
fict entitled '= An net to suppress insurrection, 
to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and 
coniiscate property of rebels, and for other 
purposes,'' approved July 17, 18G2, and which 
sections are ia the words and figures follow- 
ing' : 

" Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That all 
slaves of persons who shall hereafter be cn- 
j^'ftgcd in rebellion against the Government of 
the United States, or who shall in any way 
give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from 
such persons and taking refuge witMn the 
lines of the army ; and all slaves captured 
from such i)ersons or deserted by them, and 
coming under the control of the Government 
of the United States ; and all slaves of such 
persons found on [or] being within any place 
occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occu- 
pied by the forces of the United States, shall 
be deemed captives of war, and shall be for- 
ever free of their servitude, and not again 
held as slaves. 

•* Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That no 
slave escaping into any State, Territory, or 
the District of Columbia, from any other State, 
shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded 
or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or 
some offence against the laws, unless the per- 
son claiming said fugitive shall first make 
oath that the person to whom the labor or 
service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is 
his lawlul owner, and has not borne arms 
against the United States in the present rebel- 
lion, nor in any way given aid and comfort 
thereto: and no person engaged in the military 
or naval service of the United States shall, 
under any pretence whatever, assume to de- 
cide on the validity of the claim of any per- 
son to the service or labor of any other per- 
son, or surrender up any such person to the 
claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the 
service." 

And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all 
persons engaged in the military and naval 
service of the United States to observe, obey, 
and enforce, within their respective spheres of 
service, the acts and sections above recited. 

The Promise Redeemed. The great 
historical event of the century. Free- 
dom proclaimed to the Slave. 

From Proclamation, Jannary 1, 18G3. 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, Presi- 
dent of the United States, by virtue of the 
power in me vested as commander-in-chief ef 
the army and navy of the United States, in 
lime of actual and arn)ed rebellion against 
tlie authority and Government of the United 
Stites. and as a fit and necessary war measure 
fur suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first 
day ot January, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and siity-three, and 
in accordance with my purpose so to do, pub- 



licly proclaimed for the full period of one 
hundred days from the day first above men- 
tioned, order and designate as the States and 
parts of States wherein the people thereof, 
respectively, are this day in rebellion against 
the United States, the following, to wit : 

Arkansas, Teias, Louisiana, (except the 
parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jetferson, 
St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, As- 
sumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. 
Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New 
Crleans,) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Geor- 
gia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Vir- 
ginia, (except the forty-eight counties desig- 
nated as West Virginia, and also the counties 
of Berkely, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth 
City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, in- 
cluding the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth,) 
and which excepted parts are for the present 
left precisely uc 'f this proclamation were not 
issued. 

And by virtue of the power and for the pur- 
pose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all 
persons held as slaves within said designated 
States and parts of States, are, and hencefor- 
ward shall be, free ; and that the Executive 
Government of the United States, including 
the military and naval authorities thereof, will 
recognize and maintiiin the freedom of said 
persons. 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so 
declared to be free to abstain from all violence, 
unless in necessary self-defence ; and I recom- 
mend to them that, in all cases when allowed, 
they labor fai'.hfully for reasonable wages. 

And I further declare and make known that 
such persons, of suitable condition, will be 
received into the armed service of the United 
States to garrison forts, positions, stations, 
and other places, and to man vessels of all 
sorts in said service. 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be 
an act of justice, warranted by the Constitu- 
tion upon military necessity, I invoke the 
considerate judgment of mankind, and the 
gracious favor of Almighty God. 

Sympathy ivith the licbellion depicted. 
Liberty of Speech, Liberty of the 
Press, and the Writ of Habeas Corpus 
designed to protect lAbertyy not to 
subvert it. 

From the Letter to Erastus Coming and others, 
June 12, 18G3. 

Prior to ray installation here it had been 
inculcated that any State had a lawful right 
to secede from the national Union, and that it 
would be expedient to exercise the right when- 
ever the devotees of the doctrine should fail 
to elect a President to their own liking. I 
was elected contrary to their liking; and, ac- 
cordingly, 80 far as it was legally possible, they 
had taken seven States out of the Union, had 



II 



/ 



// 



seized mnny of the United States forfg, and 
had fired upon the United State? flag, lUl before 
I was inaugurated, and, of course, before I 
had done any official act whatever. The re- 
bellion thus began soon ran into the present 
civil war; and, in certain respects, it began on 
very unequal terms between the parties. The 
insurgents had been preparing for it more than 
thirty years, while the government had taken 
no steps to resist them. The former had care- 
fully considered all the means which could be 
turned to their account. It undoubtedly was 
a well-pondered reliance with thenx that in 
their own unrestricted efforts to destroy Union, 
Constitution, and law, altogether, the govern- 
ment would, in great degree, be restrained by 
the same Constitution and law from arresting 
their progress. Their sympathizers pervaded 
all departments of the government and nearly 
all communities of the people. From this ma- 
terial, under cover of " liberty of speech," 
"liberty of the press," and '■'■habeas corpus" 
they hoped to keep on foot amongst us a most 
efficient corps of spies, informers, suppliers, 
and aiders and abettors of their cause in a 
thousand ways. They knew that in times such 
as they were inaugurating, by the Constitution 
itself, the '-habeas corpus" might be suspended; 
but they also knew they had friends who would 
make a question as to who was to suspend it ; 
meanwhile their spies and others might remain 
at large to help on their cause. Or, if, as has 
happened, the Executive should suspend the 
writ, without ruinous waste of time, instances 
of arresting innocent persons might occur, as 
are always likely to occur in such cases; and 
then a clamor could be raised in regard to this, 
which might be, at least, of some service to 
the insurgent cause. It needed no very keen 
perception to discover this part of the enemy's 
programme, so soon as by open hostilities their 
machinery was fairly put in motion. Yet, 
thoroughly imbued with a reverence for the 
guaranteed rights of individuals, I was slow 
to adopt the strong measures which by degrees 
I have been forced to regard as being within 
the exceptions of the Constitution, and as in- 
dispensable to the public safety. Nothing is 
better known to history than that courts of 
justice are utterly incompetent to such cases. 
Civil courts are organized chiefly for trials of 
individuals, or, at most, a few individuals acting 
in concert; and this in quiet times, and on 
charges of crimes well defined in the law. 
Even in times of peace bands of horsethieves 
and robbers frequently grow too numerons and 
powerful for the ordinary courts of justice. 
But what comparison, in numbers, have such 
bands ever borne to the insurgent sympathizers 
even in many of the loyal States ? Again, a 
jury too frequently has at least one member 
more ready to hang the panel than to hang the 
the traitor. And yet. again, he who dissuades 
one man from volunteering, or induces one 
soldier to desert, weakens the Union cause as 
much as he who kills a Union soldier in battle. 



Yet this dissuasion or inducement may be so 
conducted as to be no defined crime of which 
any civil court would take cognizance. 

The logic of the Torpid Copperheads 
overturned. 

From the same. 

The man who stands by and says nothing 
when the peril of his govcrrnnent is discussed, 
cannot bn misunderstood. If not hindered, 
he is sure to help the enemy ; much more, if 
he talks ambiguously — talks for his country 
with "buts" and "ifs" and "ands." Of how 
little value the constitutional provisions I have 
quoted will be rendered, if arrests shall never 
be made until defined crimes shall have been 
committed, may be illustrated by a few notable 
examples. General John C. Breckinridge, 
General Robert E. Lee, General Joseph E. 
Johnston, General John B. Magruder, Gt-neral 
William B. Preston, General Simon B. Buck- 
ner, and Commodore Franklin Buchanan, now- 
occupying the v€ry highest places in the rebel 
war service, were all within the power of the 
government since the rebellion began, and 
were nearly as well known to be traitors then 
as now. Unquestionably if we had seized and 
held them, the insurgent cause would be much 
weaker. But no one of them had then com- 
mitted any crime defined in the law. Every 
one of them, if arrested, would have been dis- 
charged on habeas corpus were the writ allowed 
to op'erate. In view of these and similar cases, 
I think the time not unlikely to come when I 
shall be blamed for baring made too few arrests 
rather than too many. 

''Must I shoot a simple-minded Soldier- 
boy, who deserts, ivhile I must not 
touch a hair of the loily agitator who 
induces him to desert?'''' 
From the same. 
I understand the meeting, whose resolutions 
I am considering, to be in favor of suppressing 
the rebellion by military force— by armies. 
Long experience' has shown that armies can- 
not be maintained unless desertion shall be 
punished by the severe penalty of death. The 
case requires, and the law and the constitution 
sanction, this punishment. Must 1 shoot a 
simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while 
I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who 
induces him to desert? This is none the less 
injurious when efFected by getting a father, or 
brother, or friend, into a public meeting, and 
there working upon his feelings till he is per- 
suaded to write the soldier boy that he is fight- 
ing in a bad cause, for a wicked administration 
of a contemptible government, too weak to 
arrest and punish him if he shall desert. I 
think that in such a case, to silence the agitator 
and save the boy is not only constitutional, 
but withal a great mercy. 



12 



Constitutional Power in cases of Pub- 
lic Danger. 

From the same. 

If I be wrong on this question of constitu- 
tional power, my error lies in believing that 
certain proceedings are constitutional when, in 
cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety 
requires them, which would not be constitu- 
tional when, in absence of rebellion or inva- 
sion, the public safety does not require them : 
in other words, that the constitutoin is not, 
in its application, in all respects the same, in 
cases of rebellion or invasion involving the 
public safety, as it is in times of profound 
peace and public security. The constitution 
itself makes the distinction ; and I can no 
more be persuaded that the government can 
constitutionally take no strong measures in 
time of rebellion, because it can be shown that 
the same could not be lawfully taken in time 
of peace, than I can be persuaded that a par- 
ticular drug is not good medicine fora sickman, 
because it can be shown to not be good food for 
a well one. Nor am I able to appreciate the 
d;inger apprehended by the meeting that the 
American people will, by means of military 
arrests during the rebellion, lose the right of 
public discussion, the liberty of speech and the 
press, the law of evidence, trial by jury, aud 
habeas corpus, throughout the indefinite peace- 
ful future, which I trust lies before them, any 
more than I am able to believe that a man could 
contract so strong an appetite for emetics 
during temporary illness as to persist in feed- 
ing upon them during the remainder of his 
healthful life. 

President Lincoln occupies a level higher 
than any Party Platform. 

From the same. 

In this time of national peril I would have 
preferred to meet you upon a level one step 
higher than any party platform; because I am 
Bure that, from such more elevated position, we 
could do better battle for the country we all 
love than we possibly can from those lower 
ones where, from the force of habit, the preju- 
dices of the past, and selfish hopes of the future, 
we are sure to expend much of our ingenuity 
and strength in finding fault with, and aiming 
blows at, each other. iJut since you have de- 
nied me this, I will yet be thankful, for the 
country's sake, that not all democrats have 
done so. He on who.se discretionary judgment 
Mr. Vallaridighani was arrested and tried is a 
democrat, having no old party affinity with me; 
and the judge who rejected the constitutional 
view expressed in these resolutions, by refusing 
to di-.charge Mr. Vallandigliam on habeat corpug 
is a democrat of better days than these, having 
received his judicial mantle at the hands of 
President Jackson. And still more, of all 



those democrats who are nobly exposing their 
lives and shedding their blood on the battle- 
field, I have learned that many approve the 
course taken with Mr. Vallandigbam, while I 
have not heard of a single one condemning it. 

The example of General Jackson cited. 

From the same. 

It m.iy be remarked : First, that we had the 
same Constitution then [when General Jackson 
suspended the writ of habeas corpus at New 
Orleans, and arrested Judge Hall, and others.] 
as now; secondly, that we then had a case of 
invasion, and now we have a case of rebellion; 
and, thirdly, that the permanent right of the 
people to public discussion, the liljerty of 
speech and of the press, the trial by jury, the 
law of evidence, and the habeas corpus, suff- 
ered no detriment whatever by that conduct 
of General Jackson, or its subsequent approval 
by the American Congress. 

The Commander-in-Chief must take 
the responsibility, and ask justifica- 
tion from the People. 

From Letter to the Vallandigham Committee, 
January 29, 1863. 

You ask in substance whether I really claim 
that I may override all the guarantied rights 
of individuals, on the plea of conserving the 
public safety, when I may choose to say the 
public safety reqr.ires it. This question, divest- 
ed of the phraseology calculated to represent 
me as struggling for an arbitrary personal pre- 
rogative, is either simply a question who shall 
decide, or an affirmation that nobody shall de- 
cide, what the public safety does require in 
cases of rebellion or invasion. The Consti- 
tution contemplates the question as likely to 
occur for decision, but it does not expressly 
declare who is to decide it. By necessary im- 
plication, when rebellion or invasion comes, 
the decision is to be made, from time to time, 
and I think the man whom, for the time, the 
people have, under the Constitution, made the 
Commander-in-Chief of their army and navy, is 
the man who holds the power, and bears the 
responsibility of making it. If he uses the 
power justly, the same people will i)roba- 
bly justify him; if he abuses it, he is in their 
hands, to be dealt with by all the modes they 
have reserved to themselves in the Constitu- 
tion. 

The whole flatter narrowed down to a 
Question between Patriotism and 
Treason. 

From the tame. 

Your nominee for Governor, (Vallandigham,) 
in whose behalf you ap])eal, is known to you 
and to the world, to declare against the use 
of an army to suppress the rebellion. Your 



13 



f6^ 



own attitude, therefore, encourages desertion, 
resistance to the draft, and the like, because it 
teaches those who incline to desert and to es- 
cape the draft, to believe it is your purpose to 
protect them, and to hope that you will become 
strong enough to do so. 

After a short personal intercourse with you, 
gentlemen of the committee, I cannot say I 
think you desire this effect to follow your 
altitude ; but I assure you that both friends 
and enemies of the Union look upon it in this 
light. It is a substantial hope, and by conse- 
quence, a real strength to the enemy. It is 
a false hope, and one which you would will- 
ingly dispel. I will make the way exceedingly 
easy. I send yon duplicates of this letter, in 
order that you, or a majority, may, if you 
choose, endorse your names upon one of them, 
and return it thus endorsed to me, with the 
understanding that those signing are thereby 
committed to the following propositions, and 
to noihing else : 

1. That there is now a rebellion in the Uni- 
ted States, the object and tendency of which 
is to destroy the National Union ; and that in 
your opinion an army and navy are constitu- 
tional means for suppressing that rebellion. 

2. That no one of you will do anything 
which, in his own judgment, will tend to hinder 
the increase, or favor the decrease, or lessen 
the efficiency of the army and navy while en- 
gaged in the effort to suppress that rebellion : 
and 

3. That each of you will, in his sphere, do 
all he can, to have the officers, soldiers, and 
seamen of the army and navy, while engaged 
in the effort to suppress the rebellion, paid, 
fed, clad, and otherwise well provided for and 
supported. 

And with the further understanding that 
upon receiving the letter and names thus en- 
dorsed, I will cause them to be published, 
which publication shall be, within itself, a re- 
vocation of the order in relation to Mr. Val- 
landigham. 



NO COMPROMISE WITH REBELS IN ARMS 
PRACTICAL. 

From Letter to James C. Conkling, August 26, 
1863. 

I do not believe any compromise embracing 
the maintenance of the Union is now possible. 
All I learn leads to a directly opposite belief. 
The strength of the rebellion is its military- 
its army. That army dominates all the country 
and all the people within its range. Any offer 
of terms made by any man or men within that 
range, in opposition to that army, is simply 
nothing for the present, because such man or 
men have no power whatever to enforce their 
side of a compromise, if one were made with 
ihem. 



The Emancipation Proclamation justi- 
fied. Its Benefits pointed out. " 7Vie 
Promise made^ must be kept. ^* " The 
Job ivas a (jreat National one, and let 
none be banned ivho bore an lionorabh. 
part in it.'' '^ Thanks to allT' The 
memories of Black Men and of " some 
White Ones,'' when Peace shall come. 

From the tame. 



You disliked the emancipation proclama- 
tion, and perhaps you would have it retracted. 
You say it is unconstitutional. I think dif- 
ferently. I think the Constitution invests itg 
Commander-in-Chief with the law of war in 
time of war. The most that can be said — if 
so much — is that slaves are property. Is there, 
has there ever been, any question that by the 
law of war property, both of enemies and 
friends, may be taken when needed? And is 
it not needed, whenever taking it helps us, or 
hurts the enemy? Armies, the world over, 
destroy enemies' property when they cannot 
use it, and even destroy their own, to keep it 
from the enemy. Civilized belligerents do all 
in their power to help themselves or hurt the 
enemy, except a few things, regarded as bar- 
barous or cruel. Among the exceptions are 
the massacre of vanquished foes and non-com- 
batants, male and female. But the proclama- 
tion, as law, cither is valid, or is not valid. If 
it is not valid, it needs no retraction. If it is 
valid, it cannot be retracted, any more than the 
dead can be brought to life. Some of you pro- 
fess to think its retraction would operate favor- 
ably for the Union. Why better after the retrac- 
tion than be/ore the issue. There was more 
t han a year and a half of trial to suppress the 
rebellion before the proclamation issued ; the 
last one hundred days of which passed under 
an explicit notice that it was coming, unless 
averted by those who revolt, returning to their 
allegiance. The war has certainly progressed 
as favorably for us since the issue of the proc- 
lamation as before. I know, as fully as one 
can know the opinions of others, that some of 
the commanders of our armies in the field, 
who have given us our most important suc- 
cesses, believe the emancipation policy and 
the use of colored troops couftitutc the heavi- 
est blow yet dealt to the rebellion, and that at 
least one of those important successes could 
not have been achieved when it was, but for 
the aid of black soldiers. Among the com- 
manders holding these views, are some who 
have never had any afhmity with what is called 
Abolitionism, or with Republican party poli- 
tics, but who hold them purely as military 
opinions. I submit these opinions, as being 
entitled to some weight against the objections 



14 



often ui^'ed that eni;Micipation and arming the 
bhicks are unwise as militarv measures, and 
were not adopted as such in good faith. You 
say you will not fijjht to free negroes. Some 
of them seem willing to fight for jou. But 
no matter ; fight you, then, exclusively to save 
the Union. 1 issued the proclamation on pur- 
pose to aid you in saving the Union. When- 
ever you shall have conquered all resistance 
to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue 
fighting, it will be an apt time then for you to 
declare that you will not fight to free negroes. 
1 thought that in your struggle for the Union, 
to whiitever extent the negroes should cease 
helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened 
the enemy in his resistance to you. Do you 
think ditierentiy? I thought that whatever 
negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves 
just so much less for white soldiers to do in 
saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise 
to you ? But negroes, like other people, act 
upon motives. Why should the ij do ant/thiug for 
its, if u-e tcill do nothing for them ? If they stake 
their lives for us, they must be prompted by the 
strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And 
the promise being made, must be kept. 

The signs look better. The Father of Waters 
again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the 
great Northwest for it. Nor yet wholly to 
them. Three hundred miles up they met New 
England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hew- 
ing their way right aud left. The sunny South, 
too, in more colors than one, also lent a hand. 
On the spot, their part of the history was jot- 
ted down, in black and white. The job was a 
great national one, and let none be banned 
who Ijore an honorable part in it. While those 
who have cleared the great river may well be 
proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say 
that anything has been more bravely aud well 
done than at Antietam, Murfreesboro', Gettys- 
burg, and on many fields of lesser note. Nor 
mu3t Uncle Sara's web-feet be forgotten. At 
nil the watery margins thev have been present ; 
not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and 
the rapid river, but also up the narrow muddy 
bayou ; and wherever the ground was a little 
damp, they have been, and made their tracks. 
Thanks to all for the great liepublic, for the 
principle it lives by and keeps alive — for man's 
vast future — thanks to all. 

Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I 
hope it will come soon, and come to stay, and 
so come as to be worth the keeping in all fu- 
ture time. It will then have been proved that 
among free men there can be no successtiil 
appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that 
they who take such appeal are sure to lose 
their case, and y.ay the cost. And then there 
Mill be some black men uho can remember that 
nith fiient tongue and with clenched teeth , and 
steady eye and well poised bayonet, they have 
helped mankind on to this great consummation ; 
irhilc I fear (here will be tome white ones unable 
to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful 
speech they have etrove to hinder it. 



THE PROCLAMATIONS IN REGARD TO 
SLAVERY INVIOLABLE. 

From the Annual Message, December 8, 18G3. 

But if it be proper to require as a test 
of admission to the political hodif an 
oath of allep;iayice to the United State^j 
and to the Union tinder it, tvhif not also 
to the laws and proclamations in regard 
to Slavery. 

Those lairs and proclamations were 
put forth for the purpose of aiding in 
the suppression of the Rebellion. To 
give them the fullest effect there had to 
be a pledge for their maintenance. In 
my judgment they have aided, and will 
further aid, the cause for tvhich they 
were intended. 

To notv abandon them woidd be not 
only to relinquish a lever (f power, but 
ivould also be a cruel and astounding 
breach of faith. 

I may add, at this pohxt, while I re- 
main in my present position I shall not 
attempt to retract or modify the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation, nor shall I return 
to slavery any person icho i^free by the 
terms of that Proclamation, or by any 
of the acts of Congress. 

"SO FA^ AS TESTED, IT IS DIFFICULT 
TO SAY THEY ARE NOT AS GOOD SOL- 
DIERS AS ANY." 

From the same. 

Of those who were slaves at the beginning 
of the rebellion, full 100,000 are now in the 
United States military service, about one-lialf 
of which number actu.'vlly bear arms in the 
ranks, thus giving the double advantage of 
taking so much 1 ibor from the insurgent cause, 
and supplying the places which otherwise must 
be filled with so many white men. So far as 
tested, it is difficult to say they are not as good 
soldiers as any. No servile insurrection or 
tendency to violence or cruelty has marked 
the measures of Emancipation and arming the 
blacks. 

THE WAR POWER OUR CHIEF RELL\NCE. 
THE ARMY AND NAVY. 

From the same. 

While I do not repeat nor detail what I have 
heretofore so earnestly urged upon this subject, 
my general views and feelings remain un- 
changed ; and I trust that Congress will omit 
no fair opportunity of aiding these important 
steps to the great consummation. In the midst 
of other cares, however important, we must 
not lose sight of the fact that the war power 



Ifi 



// 



1 



is still our main reliance. To that power alone | 
can wc look for a time to give confidence to i 
the people in the contested rejijions, tkiit the I 
insurgent power will not again overrun iheni. < 
Until that confidence shall be established, liille \ 
can be done anywhere for whut is called recon- j 
struction. | 

Hence our chieftcst care must still be directed i 
to the Army and Navy, which have thus far 
borne their harder part so nobly and well ; 1 
and it may be esteemed fortunate that in giving ] 
the greatest efficiency to these indispensable ; 
arms we do honorably recognize the gallant 
men, from commander to sentinel, who com- 
pose them, and to whom more than to others 
the world must stand indebted for the home 
of freedom disenthralled, regeuerated, enlarged 
and perpetuated. 

In his right hatid he carries gentle peace 
To silence envious tongues. lie is just, and fears 

not: 
All the things he aims at are his country's. 

His God's, and truths. 

The Aftaiaesly ProcflaniatioBi 

Whereas, In and by the Constitution of the 
United States, it is provided that the President 
" shall have power to grant reprieves and par- 
dons for offenses against the United States, 
except in cases of impeachment;'' and 

Whereas, A rebellion now exists whereby the 
loyal State Governments of several States have 
for a long time been subverted, and many per- 
sons have committed and are now guilty of 
treason against the United States ; and 

Wlicrcas, With reference to said rebellion and 
treason, laws have been enacted by Congress 
declaring forfeitures and confiscation of prop- 
erty and liberation of slaves, all upon terms 
and cond*itions therein stated ; and also declar- 
ing that the President was thereby authorized 
at any time thereafter, by proclamation, to ex- 
tend to persons who may have participated in 
the existing rebellion in any state, or part 
thereof, pardon and amnesty, witli such ex- 
ceptions and at such times and on such con- 
ditions as he may deem expedient for the pub- 
lic welfare ; and 

Whereas, The Congressional declaration for 
limited and conditional pardon accords with 
the well-established judicial exposition of the 
pardoning power; and 

Whereas, With reference to the said Rebell- 
ion the President of the United States has is- 
sued several proclamations with provisions in 
regard to the liberation of slaves; and 

Whereas, it is now desired by some persons 
heretofore engaged in the said rebellion to 
resume their allegiance to the United States, 
and to reinaugurate loyal State Governments 
wi'hin and for their respective States: 

Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of 



the United States, do proclaim, declare and 
make known tfl all persons who have directly 
or by implication participated in the existing 
rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that 
a full pardon i.^ hereby griinted to iliem and 
each of them, with restoration of all rights of 
{jropcrty. except as to blavcs. and in property 
cases where tlie rights of third parties shall 
have intervened, and upon the condition that 
every such person .shall take and subscribe an 
oath, and thenceforward kecf) and maintain 
such oath inviolate, and which oath shall be 
registered for peruianent preservation, and shall 
be of the tenor and etfect following, to wit: 

"I, , do solemnly SAvear in the presence 

of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faith- 
fully support, protect, and defend the Consti- 
tution of the United States and the Union or 
the States thereunder, and that I will in like 
manner abide by and faithfully support all acts 
of Congress passed during the existing rebellion 
with relerenco to slaves, so long and so fir as 
not repealed, modified, or held void by Con- 
gress or by decision of the Supreme Court, and 
that I will in like manner abide by and faith- 
fully support all proclamations of the Presi- 
dent made during the existing rebellion having 
reference to slaves, so long and so far as not 
modified or declared void by decision of the 
Supreme Court. So help me God. ' 

The persons excepted from the benefits of 
the foregoing provisions are all who are or 
shall have been civil or diplomatic ofiicers or 
agents of the so-called Confederate Govern- 
ment; all who have left judicial staticn.s under 
the United States to aid the rebellion : all who 
are or shall have been military or naval officer 
of said so-called Confederate Government 
above the rank of Colonel in the army, or of 
Lieutenant in the navy; all who left seats in 
the United States Congress to aid the rebellion ; 
all the resigned commissions in the army or 
navv of the United States, and afterward aided 
the\ebellion, and all who have engaged in 
any way in treating colored persons or white 
persons in charge of such, otherwise than 
lawfully as prisoners of war, and which per- 
sons may have been found in the United States 
service a's soldiers, seanicn, or in any other ca- 
pacity. 

And I do further proclaim, declare and make 
known, that whenever, in any of the Slates of 
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana. Mississippi, Ten- 
nessee, Alabama. Georgia. Florida. South Car- 
olina, and North Carolina a number of persons, 
not less than one-tenth in number of the votes 
cast, in such Statet at the Presidential election 
of the year of our Lord 18G0, each liaving 
taken the oath aforesaid, and not having since 
violated it. and being a qualified voter by the 
election law of the State, existing immediately 
before the «o-cailed act of secession, and ex- 
cluding all others, shall reestablish a State 
Government, which shall be republican, and 
in nowise contravening said oath, such shall 
be rccof-nized as the true GoTernment of tlie 



16 



State, and the State shall receive thereunder 
the benefits of the constitutional provision 
which declares that — 

"The United States shall guarantee to every 
State in this Union a Republican form of Gov- 
ernment, and shall protect each of them against 
invasion, and on application of the Legisla- 
ture, or the Executive, when the Legislature can- 
not be convened, against domestic violence." 

And I do further proclaim, declare, and make 
known, that an}' provision which may be 
adopted by such State Government in relation 
to the freed people of such State which shall 
recognize and declare their permanent freedom, 
provide for their education, and which may 
yet be consistent, as a temporary arrangement, 
with their present condition as a laboring, 
landless, and homeless class, will not be ob- 
jected to by the National Executive, 

And it is suggested as not improper that, in 
constructing a loyal State Government in any 
State, the name of the State, the boundary, 
the subdivisions, the Constitution and the gen- 
eral code of laws as before the Rebellion, be 
maintained, subject only to the modifications 
made necessary by the conditions herein before 
stated, and such others, if any, not contra- 
vening Baid conditions, and which may be 
deemed expedient by those framing the new 
State Government. 

To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper 



to say that this Proclamation, so far as it relates 
to State Governments has no reference to States 
wherein loyal State Governments have all the 
while been maintained. And for the same 
reason it may be proper to further say, that 
whether members sent to Congress from any 
State shall be admitted to seats Constitution- 
ally, rests exclusively with the respective 
Houses, and not to any extent with the Exec- 
utive. 

And still further, that this Proclamation is 
intended to present the people of the States 
wherein the national authority has been sus- 
pended, and loyal State Governments have 
been subverted, a mode in and by which the 
national authority and loyal State Governments 
may be reestablished within said States, or in 
any of them. 

And, while the mode presented is the best 
the Executive can suggest with his present 
impressions, it must not be understood that 
no other possible mode would be acceptable. 

Given under my hand at the City of Wash- 
ington, the eighth day of December, A. D. one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and 
of the independence of the United States of 
America the eighty-eighth. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

By the President, 

William H. Seward, [l. s.] 
Secretary of State. 



The foregoing pages are submitted for the consideration of the 
American people, without comment, as a complete and unanswerable 
vindication, by the highest authority, of their motives in the per- 
sistent prosecution of the war for the preservation of the Union ; 
a justification of the policy which has been adopted by the National 
authority with the sanction of the popular judgment, and as establish- 
ing beyond controversy the necessity, legality, wisdom, and propri- 
ety of the measures which have been determined upon, the deep 
sense of duty and ardent love of country which dictated them, the 
fidelity to liberty, the patriotism and the high and unalterable purposes 
ef the great man, and statesman, under whose guidance we have pro- 
gressed thus far with safety, and upon whose prudence and wisdom 
we may justly and confidently rely. 



' C Mw '/ Q 



HBRRRY OF CONGRESS 



011 899 478 4 g 



